Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues

[InTheShadows]

How are you certain you were traveling at 58 when the car said 60?
For what it's worth I've encountered the mobile signs that tell you your speed to get to slow down, and it's always shown exactly what the speedometer said, but that was in the 30-40 mph range.

A good gps is spot on. My car is slow by 2 mph at 65. This is usually intentional because of having to fight a speeding ticket, or worse a fatality, the manufacturers do not want to be held liable.

 

[Lloyd]

The mobile signs are confirming 58 when traveling 60. GPS speed and hash marks confirm.

 

[InTheShadows]

The mobile signs are confirming 58 when traveling 60. GPS speed and hash marks confirm.

Another good way to test is to set your cruise at 60 and time exactly between mile markers on an interstate. Though with gps that is pretty old school.

 

[ecarfan]

I checked my speedometer the other day and noticed that it is fast by 2mph at 60. ( I am indicating 60 and traveling at 58) Anyone else notice this? It was dead on when the car was new.

I know BMW does this intentionally on all their vehicles supposedly for 'safety' and has been a major peeve with them. I say Build it accurate and right. I hope Tesla is not following in the same track.

My understanding is that it is typical for car speedos to be 2 or 3 mph high.

 

[mknox]

Turns out the creaking noise was coming from the drive axle to wheel hub connection which had a bit of corrosion. They also changed the axle washers I believe. Noise is now gone. Silence is bliss!

Glad you got it fixed. I was getting a similar sounding "creak" from the rear of the car, but not as serious sounding as yours. On a lark, I got my torque wrench out and checked all of my lug nuts. For the most part, they were all at spec, but a couple of the nuts did turn a tiny fraction before the torque wrench "clicked". Since then, I have not had any further creaking sounds.

 

[jerry33]

I know BMW does this intentionally on all their vehicles supposedly for 'safety' and has been a major peeve with them. I say Build it accurate and right. I hope Tesla is not following in the same track.

BMW and other European car makers do it because there are very stiff penalties if the speedometer ever shows less than the speed you are traveling.

 

[cmjohnsondds]

My car has developed a case of creaking rear suspension. With the windows open, when good torque is applied to the wheels from standstill and is then let off, I can hear very noticeable creaking sounds coming from both sides when the back end sits and then rebounds. I don't think it is air springs as I tried bouncing them and they were quiet. Something loose? Lubrication?

I had this noise early on. It was actually the frame of the car that needed to be reTorque in someway. The mechanic took car for about a day and when it was returned the noise was gone.

 

[JRP3]

More likely something that is bolted to the frame, since the frame is likely a welded unit.

 

[cobster]

I wanted to post my experience with European Motor Car Works in Santa Ana, one of the few body shops licensed to work on Teslas. This photo shows what my driver's side view mirror looked like when I left their shop, after they took 3 weeks to repair my front nose cone (at a cost of over $6,000).

They thought the casing was "loose" so decided to "help me out" by ripping it off. Apparently a Tesla body shop doesn't know the lower casing is screwed on?? Needless to say, after two weeks of back and forth they refuse to take any responsibility for the damage. Anyone else have similar experiences with them? Have no idea whether they did a good job on the nose cone, all I can tell is that is more difficult to close my hood ever since they got it but any new nose cone looks the same, can't tell if they screwed up anything internally without taking everything off (which I am very tempted to do now).

Oh, almost forgot to mention that they apparently took the car for a joy ride while they had it for 3 weeks - check out the energy spike it had when I picked it up:

They tried to tell me this was due to "charging the car up". Ha!

If Tesla Service wants to send you to European Motor Car Works in Santa Ana, insist they send you somewhere else.

 

[InTheShadows]

I wanted to post my experience with European Motor Car Works in Santa Ana, one of the few body shops licensed to work on Teslas. This photo shows what my driver's side view mirror looked like when I left their shop, after they took 3 weeks to repair my front nose cone (at a cost of over $6,000).
View attachment 50662
They thought the casing was "loose" so decided to "help me out" by ripping it off. Apparently a Tesla body shop doesn't know the lower casing is screwed on?? Needless to say, after two weeks of back and forth they refuse to take any responsibility for the damage. Anyone else have similar experiences with them? Have no idea whether they did a good job on the nose cone, all I can tell is that is more difficult to close my hood ever since they got it but any new nose cone looks the same, can't tell if they screwed up anything internally without taking everything off (which I am very tempted to do now).

Oh, almost forgot to mention that they apparently took the car for a joy ride while they had it for 3 weeks - check out the energy spike it had when I picked it up:
View attachment 50663
They tried to tell me this was due to "charging the car up". Ha!

If Tesla Service wants to send you to European Motor Car Works in Santa Ana, insist they send you somewhere else.

I would report it to ownership. Even though it's a third party shop tesla should be able to put some pressure on them to treat you right and fess up to the mirror and the joyride.

 

[Dave EV]

I would report it to ownership. Even though it's a third party shop tesla should be able to put some pressure on them to treat you right and fess up to the mirror and the joyride.

Have a service center check out the frunk, too.
Should be easy to verify if any joy rides were taken by looking at the odometer. Perhaps Tesla can pull the driving history of the car for you, too. There has been a case where it looked like a shop took a car out for a joy ride, but it turned out they just left the car on while working on it.

 

[RclKag]

BMW and other European car makers do it because there are very stiff penalties if the speedometer ever shows less than the speed you are traveling.

The speedometer is probably calibrated from "axle" rotation, for when the tires are new, and the correct circumference.
As tires wear, the circumference becomes smaller, but the axles are still turning the same amount.

 

[glhs272]

Yesterday I got a warning message on the Speedo display screen. "Car needs service/contact Tesla service" Rebooting screens did not make the message go away. I contacted Tesla Service in Highland Park, IL. They remotely pulled the logs. It appears one of the coolant pumps is sending a fault code. Tesla indicated that the car will need to be serviced in order to clear the fault message. However, they said it is still OK to keep driving it. They indicated they would like to keep the car at least a day to diagnose and repair. Unfortunately they have no available loaners at this time I am going to hold off for a week in hopes of getting a loaner available.

 

[pete8314]

I checked my speedometer the other day and noticed that it is fast by 2mph at 60. ( I am indicating 60 and traveling at 58) Anyone else notice this? It was dead on when the car was new.

I know BMW does this intentionally on all their vehicles supposedly for 'safety' and has been a major peeve with them. I say Build it accurate and right. I hope Tesla is not following in the same track.

In the UK at least, the rule for manufacturers is that the speedo must read the correct speed, or up to 10% higher, but never lower. At least, that's how it used to be, which just means that everyone one just learning to drive assumes you can drive 10% faster than what the speedo reads because, obviously, your car is super accurate In fairness, back then I had a crappy car, and no GPS to validate the speed

The same theory works in reverse, that if a posted speed is 40mph, and it has a speed camera, then you're generally safe doing 44 though the trap. Can't confirm that completely, but I must've done about 150k miles around the M25 through many speed cameras, and never got a ticket.

 

[cwerdna]

BMW and other European car makers do it because there are very stiff penalties if the speedometer ever shows less than the speed you are traveling.

My Nissan Leaf Forum View topic - Speedometer calibration ?
Speedometer Error about 1 MPH?--Some evidence | PriusChat

 

[glhs272]

Yesterday I got a warning message on the Speedo display screen. "Car needs service/contact Tesla service" Rebooting screens did not make the message go away. I contacted Tesla Service in Highland Park, IL. They remotely pulled the logs. It appears one of the coolant pumps is sending a fault code. Tesla indicated that the car will need to be serviced in order to clear the fault message. However, they said it is still OK to keep driving it. They indicated they would like to keep the car at least a day to diagnose and repair. Unfortunately they have no available loaners at this time I am going to hold off for a week in hopes of getting a loaner available.

As a follow-up on this issue:

I continued to drive the car for a few days until a loaner was available, per OK from Tesla. I didn't have to wait long. Once Tesla had their hands on it, they confirmed the issue was the Motor Inverter Coolant Pump (6007373-00-C). Pump was replaced, issue fixed. I am not sure where this pump is located or if it is part of the motor drive unit. The motor drive unit was replaced last month due to noise. The unit was replaced with a refurbished one. The drive unit works perfectly, no noise. I wonder if this pump is part of the drive unit or was original to the car.

 

[Otmar]

As a follow-up on this issue:

I continued to drive the car for a few days until a loaner was available, per OK from Tesla. I didn't have to wait long. Once Tesla had their hands on it, they confirmed the issue was the Motor Inverter Coolant Pump (6007373-00-C). Pump was replaced, issue fixed. I am not sure where this pump is located or if it is part of the motor drive unit. The motor drive unit was replaced last month due to noise. The unit was replaced with a refurbished one. The drive unit works perfectly, no noise. I wonder if this pump is part of the drive unit or was original to the car.

All three coolant pumps on the Model S are located in the front, under the frunk liner.

 

[islandbayy]

As a follow-up on this issue:

I continued to drive the car for a few days until a loaner was available, per OK from Tesla. I didn't have to wait long. Once Tesla had their hands on it, they confirmed the issue was the Motor Inverter Coolant Pump (6007373-00-C). Pump was replaced, issue fixed. I am not sure where this pump is located or if it is part of the motor drive unit. The motor drive unit was replaced last month due to noise. The unit was replaced with a refurbished one. The drive unit works perfectly, no noise. I wonder if this pump is part of the drive unit or was original to the car.

This is what the ranger did at my home last week Friday. Same error.

 

[JPP]

As a follow-up on this issue:

I continued to drive the car for a few days until a loaner was available, per OK from Tesla. I didn't have to wait long. Once Tesla had their hands on it, they confirmed the issue was the Motor Inverter Coolant Pump (6007373-00-C). Pump was replaced, issue fixed. I am not sure where this pump is located or if it is part of the motor drive unit. The motor drive unit was replaced last month due to noise. The unit was replaced with a refurbished one. The drive unit works perfectly, no noise. I wonder if this pump is part of the drive unit or was original to the car.

....me three...I got the error a few days ago after parking in a very hot closed garage (100+ F) and charging at 240V 40A for 2 hours. Unplugged my UMC, got in, stepped on the brake, got the same error. Rebooted everything--no joy. Called TM Service line...logs show problems with coolant pump. They say OK to drive while local Service Center waits for parts--backorder on the pump.

FWIW, I have 15 months and 16k miles on my S.

 

[InTheShadows]

We had the clicking steering wheel problem and took it to the service center. They installed two bushings and retorqued everything. About a week after we had it fixed I thought I heard a single click as I turned the wheel to lock. Then a few days later I heard it again. Well, yesterday I was parallel parking downtown and it clicked almost the whole time while I completed the maneuver.

I'm hoping that they will send a ranger for free since they didn't fix it right the first time and I live 170 miles from the closest service center.